Here is the opinion in Winnemem Wintu Tribe v. DOI (E.D. Cal.): Winnemem Wintu Tribe v. DOI
cultural resources
Washington Appellate Court Affirms Termination of Nooksack Parent’s Rights
Here is the opinion in In re LNB-L.
Of note, the court affirmed that the State’s qualified Indian expert witness was qualified, despite the fact that she could not describe the traditional Nooksack family unit, on grounds that the tribe had passed a resolution stating she was qualified.
N.D. Supreme Court Holds that ICWA Doesn’t Apply to “Initial Custody Determination”
Here is the opinion in Schirado v. Foote.
An excerpt:
Second, the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”) does not control this case. The ICWA grants tribal courts exclusive jurisdiction over “child custody proceeding[s]” involving Indian children. 25 U.S.C.A. § 1911(a). The covered “child custody proceeding[s]” include only foster care placements, terminations of parental rights, preadoptive placements and adoptive placements. 25 U.S.C.A. § 1903(1). Despite Foote’s enrollment in the Three Affiliated Tribes and despite her exhaustive references to the ICWA in her brief and at oral arguments, the ICWA is not applicable because this case concerns an initial custody determination; a proceeding outside the purview of the ICWA. See In re DeFender, 435 N.W.2d 717, 721 (S.D. 1989).
A.A. v. Needville School District — Fifth Circuit Strikes Down School’s Long-Hair Policy
Incredible opinion: Arocha Opinion July 9, 2010.
Here are the materials.
Omaha Tribe Demands $120 Million from U. Neb. Billion Dollar Fund Raiser
From the Rapid City Journal (thanks to V.H.):
MACY, Neb. — The Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project, a multicultural research group for the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa, is demanding that the University of Nebraska Foundation set aside 10 percent of its One Billion Dollar Endowment Campaign, saying the university hasn’t compensated the tribe for its for-profit use in research materials of tribal material and intellectual and cultural property.
That would amount to about $120 million for the tribe.
Dennis Hastings, Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project’s founder, sent a letter to Clarence Castner, University of Nebraska Foundation head, saying that the university has commercialized the ancestral and contemporary culture of the sovereign Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa through the school’s publications, research and academic activities for the university’s growth and academic gain.
Scores of academic initiatives, programs, private, state and federal grants, research articles and books have been generated about the Omaha, all with little tribal consultation or recompense, Hastings said in the letter.
The letter is part of a larger report alleging institutional racism at the university.
No response from the university was available on Sunday.
Oklevueha Native Am. Church v. Holder — Federal Court Declines to Dismiss RFRA Claim
Interesting case. Not sure if it will go anywhere. The claim is about the federal government’s seizure of cannabis from this organization based in Hawaii. Claims for an injunction against future prosecution and for tort claims related to the seizure were dismissed.
Here are the materials:
An earlier motion to dismiss on the first complaint was granted (materials here).
Graham and McJohn: “Thirty Two Short Stories about Intellectual Property”
Lorie Graham and Stephen M. McJohn have posted their paper, “Thirty Two Short Stories about Intellectual Property,” on SSRN.
Here is the abstract:
In the United States, intellectual property law is usually viewed as serving economics, by providing an incentive for authors and inventors to create works. The incentive policy, however, ill fits the actual contours of intellectual property law and how artists and inventors use it. Adding other approaches offers a fuller explanation. Intellectual property plays a greater role than economic theory suggests in disclosing technology, and in serving to coordinate cultural values in technology. Intellectual property can serve human rights (similar to the moral rights approach in some jurisdictions), by allowing people to control the way that their works are publicly exploited, and by allowing groups (such as indigenous peoples) to implement rights of self-determination, education, and media.
This piece also departs from the typical law review format. In assessing doctrine and theory, deductive reasoning from economic or legal principles is no more important than literary tools, like interpretation and narrative. These points can be illustrated by some stories.
Federal Court Dismisses Tribal Claim to Uproot State Court UCCJEA Jurisdiction
The case is Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Duwyenie (D. Ariz.). The state court opinion is posted here.
Here are the materials:
State Judicial Defendant Motion to Dismiss
State Judicial Defendant Reply
Did I say ICWA? Oops. I meant UCCJEA….
NYTs on Shinnecock Recognition
From the NYTs:
There’s no irony or attitude at the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum, just the whaling artifacts, the carved elk on the front door, the portraits and memorabilia of a people whose history on Long Island goes back thousands of years.
Still, only a deity with a perverse sense of humor could have written the story of the Shinnecocks, which entered a new era on Tuesday when a 32-year legal effort culminated in the formal federal recognition of the tribe.
You could start with the locale: how the bays and beaches the Shinnecocks and their ancestors fished and nurtured for millennia morphed into not just the Hamptons, but some of the richest and snootiest precincts there. That left the Shinnecocks strangers in their own land, a largely poor tribe of 1,200 with an 800-acre reservation tucked amid the lime-green slacks, the $36 lobster roll (Silver’s on Main Street) and the perma-tan, perma-thin habitués of this playground of the seriously rich.
Then there’s been the long legal dance and periodic skirmishes over the tribe’s nuclear option: its threat to build a casino on the reservation that could have turned the standard East End gridlock into a graveyard of permanently immobilized Lexuses, Range Rovers and BMWs.
And now, with the economy still in the tank and development hard to come by, the outsiders at the banquet are the ones holding all the chips. The courting and wooing for what could be one of New York State’s biggest economic projects in many years have been going on quietly for some time.
But the action begins in earnest next month, when, 30 days after the designation, the tribe can start taking official steps to build what could be New York’s answer to Connecticut’s mega-casinos.
Michigan COA Affirms Termination of Parental Rights under ICWA
Here is the unpublished opinion: In the Matter of MPT.
Turtle Talk 
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